


The Seven Seas Of Rhye

by monkiainen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gossip, Implied Relationships, Nosy Bertha, One-Sided Relationship, Poor Peter, Rumors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-27
Packaged: 2018-04-06 11:05:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4219377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monkiainen/pseuds/monkiainen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bertha doesn't really care about Peter when she asks him out on date - it's more about the information she thinks he has.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Seven Seas Of Rhye

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yaakov](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaakov/gifts).



> For the Term 31 Spring Fling at hh_sugarquill.

Bertha knew she wasn’t the most beautiful girl in her year, not even close. She wasn’t the smartest, either. Oh no. Her talent laid in a completely different idea, one might say. For some reason people didn’t realise how much she actually listened and remembered things they would rather forget. All those nice and juicy tidbits she had heard over the years – she had more control over her peers than they realized. It was quite funny, actually, to watch how people tried **so** hard to keep their secrets as secrets. And thus Bertha used those tidbits for her own advantage: If you do my Charms homework, I won’t tell your boyfriend who you were snogging last night. If you pay me certain amount of Knuts, I won’t send an owl your parents and tell them you’ve been getting too friendly with half-bloods and Muggleborns. Life was smiling for Bertha.

Of course, now that her time in Hogwarts was coming to an end, she really needed to have bigger and juicier gossip to reach her goal: she wanted to be famous and rich, and being a reporter for the Daily Prophet was the way to go. Bertha dreamed of seeing her name written in bold letters in the front page and people praising her for every word she would produce. Yes. That was it. Being famous would also mean she wouldn’t have to worry about money anymore – no more people belittling her because she was _poor_. Never again.

Bertha knew there was something odd about that Lupin boy few years below her. The poor boy was overly sickly, missing classes regularly every month. Despite the valid explanations _(“My mother was very ill.” “I got food poisoning.” “A spell misfired and I had to spend few nights at the infirmary.”)_ something just didn’t feel right. Bertha had tried to eavesdrop Lupin and his friends, but it was almost as if they always knew if she was around. She didn’t know how they did it, but it only made her to try harder. There had to be something about Lupin she could use to make herself famous and rich in no time.

How to manage her goal, then? Bertha had pondered the question over and over again, until she had come up with a solution: Peter Pettigrew. The most forgettable one of the Lupin’s friend. Everybody admired James Potter for his Quidditch skills, and everybody wanted to be the center of Sirius Black’s attention, but nobody ever noticed Peter. No wonder really, not with those _dreadfully_ common looks and mediocre skills. He wasn’t ugly, per say, just not even close to Potter’s or Black’s league. Bertha was confident that she would have no trouble to get Peter to spill the beans so to speak – she was older and quite nice to look at, and someone as dull as Peter Pettigrew was probably not used to having girls paying attention to him.

With a plan formed in her mind, Bertha patiently waited for a chance to execute it. Finally, it came on one winter-y afternoon, when Bertha spotted Peter all alone in the library. Excellent. 

“Can I sit here?”

Oh, this was way too easy. Peter looked at her confused, blinking his watery grey eyes stupidly. There was not going to be any challenge – pity, Bertha thought to herself. Gaining information was so much more fun if she actually had to work for it. That didn’t seem to be the case with Peter.

“Umm… yes, I guess. Bertha, isn’t it?” Peter mumbled nervously, trying in vain the gather his homework from the table. For the life of him he couldn’t understand why the older Gryffindor girl was even speaking with him, let alone asking to sit with him. It was probably one of James and Sirius’s pranks. They had such a twisted sense of humour sometimes.

“Do you have plans for the next Hogsmeade weekend? Would you like to go there with me?” Bertha asked sweetly, batting her eyelashes just right. Oh Merlin.. did the younger boy just _blush_? This was so ridiculously easy, almost like stealing candy from a kid. Oh wait, even that was more challenging than her current task.

Peter gasped, not really knowing what to say or do. Was she… really serious with her question? But why? He wasn’t athletic like James, or smart like Remus, or good-looking like Sirius. He was just… plain and boring. It had to be a joke, there was no other explanation.

“Actually… I already promised Mary McDonald I would take her to Madam Puddifoot’s.. you know, because of that whole Mulciber incident. Just to make her feel better?” Peter stammered nervously. Oh dear. What if Bertha didn’t believe him? 

“Oh, that’s a shame. Perhaps some other time?” Bertha continued, fuming silently in her mind. Just her luck. And she just couldn’t push Mary out of the way, all the sympathies were on her side already. Damn it. She would just have to get her information some other way. 

It remained forever unclear what Peter’s response was going to be, as the remaining Marauders chose exactly that moment to arrive, grabbing Peter along wherever that was. Bertha was left alone, with a new plan already forming in her mind.

This time it would work.


End file.
